


Shadows

by N1ghtshade



Category: Robin Hood (2018)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 06:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16907427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1ghtshade/pseuds/N1ghtshade
Summary: It was only a dream. Only a dream.And then another piercing scream cuts through the night air. “No! Stop!”This is no dream. At least not John's.The Crusade has left more than physical scars.





	Shadows

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work for this fandom, but I can definitely say there will be more to come! I loved this movie, especially John and Robin's father and son dynamic...so you can expect most of my stories to focus on that! And angst. And pain. Because apparently that's what I'm really proficient at writing...

There’s the sting of dust and tears in John’s eyes and the screams of the defenseless boy in his ears. 

_ “Father, help me! Please! I don’t know anything, no, stop!” _ He ignores the pain burning through his severed wrist from the manacles, and pulls harder, desperate to get to his son, to take his place, to save him. 

But the blade falls anyway. And the dream shatters with a heartrending scream.

John sits up quickly, the blanket falling away from his shoulders as he draws a throat-burning gasp of English winter air. He’s not sure he’ll ever become accustomed to the raw, wet cold that these people seem to take in their stride. Focusing on the difference in the air here, though, helps take his mind off the memories of hot sand and dry dust mixing with the tears stinging his eyes. 

_ It was only a dream. Only a dream. _

And then another piercing scream cuts through the night air. “No! Stop!”

_ This is no dream. At least not mine. _

John leaps to his feet and crosses the room in moments to where Robin is sleeping. John had hoped the boy’s exhaustion from a day of training would have left him too tired for more evil dreams. But it seems nothing can pull the war from his head. 

Robin is thrashing, pulling away from imaginary hands. “Let me go! He’s still alive!” He reaches out, hands grasping for a dream person, a friend, a comrade. “I can save him!”

“English, wake up. It is only a dream.” John rests his hand gently on Rob’s shoulder. 

He shoves John’s hand away and swings a fist sloppily, still, there’s power behind it and John feels a small cut open on his lip. “No! Let me go!”

“Stop, English!” John shakes him, maybe more roughly than necessary, but he’s seen too many soldiers like this. “Robin!” 

The boy’s eyes fly open, and for a moment they’re blank. Lost. Empty. And then he looks up at John and those eyes go black with rage. “You killed him! All of you!” He tries to leap to his feet, but John pins him down, taking advantage of the fact that the boy seems to still be half asleep.

“I am truly sorry for whatever happened. It was a war, we all lost someone.” John isn’t sure rationality is going to get through to Rob right now. 

The boy struggling and thrashing under his hand takes a sudden deep breath, and then those clouded blue eyes fill with a painful awareness. “John?”

John sighs and relaxes his hand, rocking back onto his heels. 

“Again?” Robin asks, turning his head away. The dreams have haunted him ever since John has known him. Some days are worse than others. This is by far one of the worst. 

John nods. “You would not wake up.” And then he makes the mistake. He leans toward Rob and the moonlight coming through a broken window must catch on the blood on his lip.

“Did I...Did I do this?”

“It was not your fault. You didn’t know what you were doing.”

Rob turns away from John, pulling his hands to his chest. “That’s what terrifies me. I could kill, and it would be nothing. Until I woke up and saw what I had done.” He sighs. “I think you were right. To keep me away from Marion. What future could I give her? A man with a broken mind, a man who’s chased by devils in his dreams.” He stares down at his calloused hands, clenching and unclenching his strong fingers. “I could kill her in her sleep. She could scream for me to stop and I would know nothing.”

Tracks of tears run silver down his cheeks in the moonlight. “There’s no going back. Robin of Loxley is dead. He died in the sand. The Sheriff was right. The man I was is gone.”

“Not gone. Only lost, wandering the wastes of horrors he was made to endure.” John rests his good hand on the boy’s shoulder. “In time, the war will fade. I know more of this than you think, English. The same demons haunt me.”

“Someday, the dreams will stop?”

“I do not know if they ever end. But now that you are home, away from what you have seen, they will begin to heal. The mind bears the scars of war, much like the body. What has been done, cannot be undone. But you will learn to bear it.” He sighs. “And those around you will as well. Those who truly love you, they will begin to heal you. But only if you are willing to allow it.”

Robin says nothing. He simply leans against the wall. Finally, he wipes a hand across his cheeks. “How do you bear it?”

“One moment at a time. Each day, each night, each hour is a victory.” He smiles. “And when I was young? Like you? I trained.” He reaches out to help Rob to his feet. “Sometimes, it helps to slay the demons in your head with a bow in your hand.”

“I think you’re making excuses to make me work even harder,” Rob says, but he smiles. John has the feeling more than a few targets will be reduced to splinters tonight. “But I’ve got nothing better to do.” 


End file.
